1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic shopping mall configured on a communication network having virtual shops as tenants, which offers and sells products or services to customers in response to the accesses from the customers via the communication network.
2. Background Art
In recent years, services for selling products or services etc. over a communication network called the Internet have been thriving. In such an Internet sales system for selling/buying products or services over a communication network, most of transactions are usually based on prices set by sellers. In such system, generally, a customer surfs plural shopping sites him/herself or using a search system and then selects a shopping site offering the lowest price or the best sales condition out of the shopping sites providing products or services that the customer wants to purchase.
This corresponds to usual shopping off a communication network, in which a customer visits various shops to purchase a product or a service at a store that provides the lowest price or an acceptable sales condition.
The customer may negotiate for a discount if he/she is not satisfied with the price in the usual shopping. However, even if such a discount system is introduced into the sale over the Internet, shops differ widely in handling negotiations for discounts, and thus an appropriate system cannot be configured at present.
Also, there are reverse auction systems whereby a customer sets a desired price beforehand and looks for a seller. However, it is difficult for the customer to participate in this system if he/she does not have enough information on the desired products, the market prices, etc.